Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 175 Book signing event, the dawn of a teacher

The time came to late August.

Changjiang Literature and Art finally notified Cao Sheng to hold a book signing event.

The signing event will be held in five cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Guangzhou and Chengdu.

After receiving the notice, Cao Sheng made some preparations and arrived at his first stop, Beijing, on August 8.

Holding another book signing event was already a familiar thing for him. He was very calm and handled it with ease. When signing autographs for book fans, he would even take the initiative to talk to them. If fans asked to take photos with him, he would cooperate naturally.

The purpose of a book signing event is not just to sell a certain number of books on the day.

It is unrealistic to expect how many signed books can be sold during the signing event. Even if he signs autographs for book fans non-stop 24 hours a day, how many books can he sign?
Besides, there aren’t so many book fans coming to the book signing event.

Therefore, the main purpose of the book signing is publicity.

Let book fans and non-book fans from all over the country see the book signing event and feel that the book is selling well, which will arouse their desire to buy it.

This is the real purpose of the book signing event.

Therefore, as the signing event started, newspapers, television and radio stations across the country began to promote it on a large scale.

After the capital, it is the Magic City.

After Shanghai, it’s Guangzhou, Chengdu, and finally Wuhan.

There will be five book signing sessions, with one day between each.

In the media, it was a ten-day promotion.

The frequent appearances of "Zhongyuan Yidianhui" and "Shenmu" in the media have brought back many people's memories and made many people have an illusion: it feels like I have seen this episode before.

It reminded them of the signing events of Zhongyuan Yidianhui’s two previous books.

Especially during the book signings last summer, the weather felt about the same.

Someone said: "This guy has really become a famous writer. Why does it seem like he is the only one writing novels in the past two years? Why don't other writers hold book signings?"

Some people said: "At such a young age, he has already published his third book. Are young people so aggressive nowadays?"

Someone said: "They say the post-80s generation is the lost generation. Is this guy also born in the 80s? Is this what a lost generation looks like?"

Others say: "The post-80s generation is indeed a lost generation. At least among the young writers born in the 80s, only this little gray in the Central Plains can be shown off. A single flower does not make a spring! For novel writing, we still have to look to our traditional writers!"

Are those born in the 80s really the lost generation?

That night, in a hotel in Chengdu.

Cao Sheng was surfing the Internet with his laptop and couldn't help laughing when he saw such voices on the Internet.

Do we still have to look to traditional writers to write novels?

If traditional writers hadn’t been so lame that for decades most young people hadn’t been interested in reading their works, would online literature have had the soil to be born?
Why has online literature been able to grow wildly and rapidly since its birth?
Isn’t it because the soil in the domestic cultural field is too fertile?

There are too few ways for young people to entertain themselves.

There is a huge demand for cultural and entertainment products, but traditional writers do not have the ability to absorb much nutrients from such fertile soil. If they work a little harder, the nutrients in this soil will be absorbed by them. What is the future of online literature?

……

This evening.

In a rented house in a county town, Xue Ping sat at a simple wooden table, head down, writing a new chapter, "The Reincarnation of the Emperor of Heaven".

He hasn't given up on the work yet.

Even though this book has been recommended by Under the Banyan Tree Publishing House, no publishing house has approached him to sign a contract.

He is still holding on.

Moreover, in order to ensure the serialization of this book online, he specially rented such a house in the county town.

Fortunately, the rent for such a house is not expensive these days, only 20 yuan per month, and 100 yuan can be rented for five months.

In order to convince his wife to allow him to rent a house in the county town, he promised his wife to quit smoking and use the cigarette payments as rent so as not to increase the family expenses.

Perhaps it was his promise to quit smoking that touched his wife.

The woman who had always opposed him using his spare time to write novels finally softened her heart and gave him an additional two hundred yuan, saying that it was for him to upload the manuscript to the Internet cafe.

But when I gave him the money, I told him that after the 200 yuan was spent, if there was still no hope of his novel being published, he could not continue doing this, at least not continue to serialize it online.

He agreed.

He knew that it was rare for his wife to make such a concession.

He had no dream of writing a novel.

He originally thought that he would probably be a teacher for the rest of his life, because if he lectured loudly, his voice would become thinner and his students would always call him a eunuch or a father-in-law behind his back.

Until he saw the achievements of Zhongyuan Yidianhui in the newspaper.

And "I Want to Become an Immortal" by Zhongyuan Yidianhui.

It allowed him to see another option in his life. If he could follow this path, his life would be changed.

He longs to change his current life.

The teaching job that many people envy is torture for him and not happy at all.

He has a lot of knowledge, but he doesn't like standing on the podium and lecturing loudly.

He would have enjoyed this job if he could speak in a lower voice, but when he spoke in a lower voice, most of the students in the classroom could not hear what he was saying.

He could only force himself to speak louder, but he was born with a low voice, and when he tried to teach, his voice was so shrill that he felt like a eunuch. Which man likes to be given such a nickname?
……

In front of the simple wooden table, Xue Ping was still writing furiously under the light of the desk lamp. It had already gotten dark outside the window, but he was still writing.

When I was writing until my stomach started to growl, I would reach out to the plastic bag next to me, take out a steamed bun, take a couple of bites, and then continue writing. Sometimes when I choked, I would just drink a few sips of boiled water.

His income as a teacher is actually not bad.

Logically speaking, it doesn't have to be so hard.

But no one in his family supported him in writing novels, and he didn't want to add burden to his family, so he tried to save as much as possible.

When you feel tired from writing, get up and move around.

I felt better again, so I sat down and continued writing.

He kept writing until after eleven o'clock in the evening. When he felt that the time was almost up, he picked up a stack of drafts, took his water cup, got up and left the rental house, and walked towards a nearby Internet cafe.

It’s almost time to spend the night at the Internet cafe.

He had just learned how to type online, and if he didn't choose to upload the manuscript overnight, the Internet fee would be too expensive for him.

He arrived at the Internet cafe and waited for more than ten minutes before the boss said he could stay there for the whole night and gave him a computer.

He hurried to upload the manuscript.

Before booking a whole night, the lights in the Internet cafe were still on. As soon as the overnight booking time was announced, the boss turned off all the lights to save some electricity bills.

Only the computer screens were still emitting light.

Such lighting was too unfriendly for Xue Ping, who was not very skilled at typing.

He asked his boss a few days ago: Can I turn on a light?

The boss lady retorted, "Do you pay the electricity bill?"

Internet cafe owners are very arrogant these days. During the day, the Internet access fee is expensive and their attitude may be slightly better. At night, the cost of overnight stay is much cheaper. It is up to you to include it or not. Anyway, the Internet cafe does not expect to make much money by including it overnight.

After all, there are not many people who book a room for the whole night, and the money earned from a whole night may not be as much as that earned from an hour during the day.

From then on, Xue Ping never raised this suggestion again.

Trying hard to adapt to the environment in the Internet cafe.

That night, he was uploading the manuscript until around five in the morning when he finally got tired and dozed off several times. Each time, his head would suddenly droop before he woke up with a start and continued typing.

This happened again and again. He went to the bathroom, washed his face with cold water, and returned to the computer, finally feeling a little more energetic.

Upload all the manuscripts on the manuscript paper and save them to your mailbox.

Seeing that there was still more than half an hour left for the overnight stay, he thought for a moment and went to the author's backstage under the banyan tree.

What surprised him was that the author’s backend showed an unread message sent to him by the website.

Is this book of mine going to be recommended again?

He was a little surprised and clicked on the text message.

Everyone was stunned.

The text message reads as follows: "Dear author! I am pleased to inform you that your work "The Reincarnation of the Heavenly Emperor" has passed the review of Hetu Publishing House. Hetu is interested in publishing your work. If your work has not been published in traditional Chinese and you are interested in publishing it, please contact the Hetu manuscript editor. The contact email address is..."

Looking at the message on the site, he was stunned for a long while before a smile slowly appeared on his face. The dark clouds in his heart seemed to have dissipated, and his whole heart became bright.

He saw hope.

I saw hope for changing my life.

Before seeing this message on the website, he had doubted countless times whether he was good at writing novels. He also doubted the quality of "The Reincarnation of the Heavenly Emperor" time and time again.

The comments from his wife, relatives and friends about his novel were like needles piercing his heart, constantly shaking his determination to persevere.

And today...

He looked up and inadvertently saw that the sky outside the window was gradually brightening, as if after so long of persistence, he finally saw the dawn of hope.

……

Cao Sheng’s book signing session is over.

He went back to his hometown, brought some clothes and shoes for his parents, and left tens of thousands of yuan. After staying in his hometown for two days, he returned to Huizhou. The new semester had begun, and it was time to register for school.

9 month 3 day.

He came to the school to complete the registration procedures and paid the tuition for this academic year.

He is a junior.

It is his last year of college.

In the original time and space, in his last year of college, he only stayed in school for half a year, and spent the other half year on internship. When he came back from the internship, his college career ended.

I thought my college life was very long, but it seems to have ended in the blink of an eye.

After registering, he was about to go back to his residence. As soon as he reached the school gate, he ran into his former roommate Wei Dongming, whose skin had become much darker.

They were both surprised to meet here suddenly.

Wei Dongming trotted over in surprise, raised his hand and patted Cao Sheng's arm, "Third brother! Long time no see! By the way, did you move to a new house this summer? Half a month ago, I went to your house on Binjiang Road to look for you. I knocked on the door for a long time and called out several times, but you didn't open the door. Instead, an old lady next door came out. She told me that you moved a few days ago. Didn't you buy that house yourself? What did you move to? Where did you move to?"

(End of this chapter)